The Hard Way'
by phoenixmagic1
Summary: This is a oneshot, based on the song titled The Hard Way by Keith Urban. Huddy. Please R&R!


6/25/2007

Disclaimer: I don't own the song "The Hard Way". This song is from Keith Urban's CD "Be Here". It's written by River Rutherford and Gordie Sampson. The lyrics are from the fan based site called KeithUrbanFans dot com. I don't own the website. I don't own House or Cuddy, David Shore does.

Rated: T. My apologies if House or Cuddy seem OOC. This is un-beta'd.

House sat in a smoke filled bar. It was a Friday night around 8:00p.m. and he sat at the bar, getting drunk. House usually didn't get plastered on a Monday night but tonight he made an exception.

He sat at the bar drinking whiskey tumblers, he had lost count a few hours ago at how many he had drunk so far. He wore his usual attire of jeans, a faded old vintage t-shirt, Nike Shox, and a dress jacket. He had shed the dress jacket and placed it on the stood next to him where his always present cane hung too. House had been drinking since he came into the bar around 5:00p.m. Nearby, was a bottle of Jack Daniel's, House poured himself another shot into the shot glass and downed in one fell swoop. He felt the whiskey burn his throat as it went down. He poured himself another shot and downed that one too.

House could smell the stench of cigars and cigarettes and he smiled slightly. He looked over to the nearby stage where a man was setting up his equipment. House had been at this bar a few times, after work, to have a few drinks to relax and calm himself before he went home. The guy who was playing was a local guy, nobody he had ever heard of. House sighed and went back to drinking at the bar. He wasn't drunk, he had paced himself over the many hours and was very pleasantly buzzed, but he wasn't drunk. House sat at the bar drinking his shots, listening to the music and thought about her and him.

House was here because of her. Cuddy. The thought of her name made him wince inwardly. He sighed and thought about their relationship or lack there of. House and Cuddy had been together for eight years. Through those eight years, they had experienced times of joy, when House had his Ketamine treatment and he was able to use his leg like a normal human being for a few months and run to work. They also had enjoyed many monster truck rallies together, movie and make out sessions, many nights of fantastic lovemaking, mornings where they ran together after House's Ketamine treatment, games of chess and checkers, games of fooseball and so much more.

They also had bad times. Like when House experienced pain after the Ketamine treatment and he went back to using his cane and how he acted more bitter and angry at the world and at Cuddy for what had happened to him. Some of the hardest times were when they had to deal with Tritter and after that blew over, House and Cuddy dealt with House's fake brain cancer fiasco. Before the Ketamine treatment, House was his usual self-centered, sarcastic self which was something that Cuddy was used to. She could handle that. After the Ketamine treatment, House was ten times more snarky, sarcastic, self-centered, and bitter and even more an S.O.B. if that was possible and with House, this was very possible.

Their last fight had been a few days ago, they had been arguing about House's behavior, not only at work, but towards her and everyone around them. Hateful and hurtful words had been said by each of them to the other and in the end, all that had been left was a woman reduced to silent tears by her lover of eight years and a man in pain, physical and mental and there was silence. The silence that hung in the air was the worst thing. The tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife.

That night, neither of them said a word to the other as Cuddy went to bed and House went out to the local bar along with Wilson. As Cuddy lay sleeping on their bed, House stumbled in a few hours later, drunk as a skunk and he knew that he had woken her up with all of the noise he created when he stumbled in but he didn't care. House fell into the bed and passed out.

Over the next several days, neither of them said a word to each other unless it was necessary. House didn't put up a fight when Cuddy told him to go to Clinic duty and all of the Ducklings were surprised. But they all knew something was amiss, and when they tried to question House about it he gave them a death glare that told them if they wanted to keep their job, they'd shut up and do it.

Wilson was the only one who knew what as going on between House and Cuddy. The oncologist did his best to try and patch things up between the two lovers. They had had their spats like this in the past and usually it was over within a few days, but this time Wilson was worried because it had never gone on for this long. He tried his best to talk to House and Cuddy, separately, to see if he could talk some sense into them, but his efforts were no use. That Friday, House and Cuddy had gone their separate ways on home, home meaning back to House's apartment. Instead of sitting around the apartment all night and dealing with the tension and anger, House came here to this bar. House just wondered if this relationship with Cuddy, if this was all that was left. If it was going to work out between them, would they?, Could they? Fix it? Was it even worth it? Did either of them care enough to work it out?

House was brought out of his day dream by the bartender's voice asking him if he had had enough to drink. House said something sarcastic and the bartender went away. It was now 10:30p.m. and the bar was sufficiently packed with people.

The one person that House didn't notice come in was Cuddy. She sat with a glass of red wine way back in a dark corner of the bar with a bottle of red wine sitting nearby. Cuddy had gotten to the bar around 6:00p.m. and had been listening to the music, getting buzzed and watching House drink. She too had been reminiscing over her relationship with House over the past eight years. Cuddy took another drink of her red wine.

Both of them turned their attention, along with the rest of the crowd to the stage where the announcer announced that the latest singer up was a man named Keith Urban. Both Cuddy and House knew who this guy was and they smiled a small smile. Keith introduced himself to the crowd and the crowd went wild. After the noise of the crowd had lessened, Keith started playing a variety of songs. About half way through his first set, Keith brought out his acoustic guitar and a stool. He announced that this song was off his CD called "Be Here" and it was titled "The Hard Way".

_You've got your own way of looking at it baby  
I guess that proves that I got mine  
Seems like our hearts are set on automatic  
We say the first thing that comes to mind  
It's just who we are baby, we've come too far to start over now  
I know what you're thinkin' ; I'm not always easy to be around_

_(Chorus)  
But I do love you  
You keep me believin' that you love me too  
And I know it's true  
This love drives us crazy but nobody's walkin' away  
So, I guess we'll have to do it the hard way_

_If I had a genie in a bottle  
Three wishes I could wish for us  
I wish we'd live forever and get along together  
Turn these tempers into trust_

_(Chorus)_

_Do it the hard way_

_It's just who we are baby, we've come to far to start over now  
Believe me tonight love's the one thing in life we can't live without_

_(Chorus)_

_Do it the hard way  
The hard way_

Keith's voice was filled with emotion and when the song was over, the crowd clapped and cheered and the only two patrons in the bar who seemed to resonate with song were crying soft, silent tears. House was never ever a man to cry, but this Keith Urban guy really hit home for him. House wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and took a few more shots of liquid courage until he got his emotions in check. House blocked out everything in the bar, the music, the noise, and the people. The only thing he could hear was his own breathing and feel his eyes still water.

Meanwhile, Cuddy had been crying too. Salty tears had landed in her glass of red wine. She wiped her eyes and took several more sips of her red wine to calm her nerves. Cuddy hardly noticed that she had drunken almost the entire bottle of red wine and she was drunk. She poured herself another glass and noticed that the waiter had brought her another bottle of wine, which she accepted. The bottle was opened and more red liquid was poured into her glass. She took a sip and got lost in the thoughts, tears, and red wine.

About an hour later, Cuddy left the bar, got a cab and went back to House's apartment and passed out on the bed. Before she left, she saw House who now had stopped drinking, was staring blankly into space. She said nothing to him as she left. An hour or so after Cuddy left, House followed suite and ended up back at the apartment and Cuddy scarcely noticed him come through the door. He passed out on the black leather couch.

That weekend, they both got over their hangovers, but neither of them said a word to each other. They still fought that weekend, but this time without words and that's what made the tension, anger, sadness and heartache almost unbearable.

That Monday morning, Cuddy gathered all of her things, while House was in the shower. Before she left his apartment for one final time, she wrote him a note and left it on the kitchen counter where she knew he'd find it when he went in to drink his morning coffee.

When House exited the shower, dressed and towel dried his hair, and he limped into the kitchen to get his morning coffee. He saw the note on his kitchen counter that said

_House-_

_We'll have to do it the hard way. _

_-Cuddy_

With those words he read, House knew in an instant, that she had been there at the bar with him too. House just assumed that Cuddy had stayed in that night and gotten drunk off the wine they had in his apartment. He never thought that she went to that bar that night! House took his mug of coffee and threw it against the wall in his kitchen where he shattered and coffee flew everywhere. House limped over to his kitchen cabinet and took out his finest whiskey. '_Screw going into work today!' _he thought as he unscrewed the cap off the bottle and took a long pull. He limped to the couch, turned on his TV, and drank until he felt numb. House knew that he and Cuddy had done in the hard way and he was the one who had just lost it all.


End file.
